12.06.2009

This one's for the Lutherans ...

Actually it's for anyone, but only the Lutherans are likely to have a copy of The Lutheran around ... I have an article in there about spiritual needs during pregnancy and ideas for alternative showers. I'd like to invite (encourage!) you to join in a discussion at The Lutheran this next week if you have suggestions, stories or other thoughts to add. Also, if you look at the article online, there is a list of suggested readings/music/prayers along the right-hand side of the screen. It's not very obvious, so you 'll have to look for it.
And to give a little back story, this piece was born out of conversations with several friends about what they loved or lacked during their own pregnancies. Erinn Tubbs, a friend from OSLC, is the one who first mentioned to me the movement of "mother blessings" and other alternative showers. During my own pregnancy, I was blessed to be supported materially by a very generous shower held by our church and numerous meals after Finn's birth, but also spiritually from my EFM (Education for Ministry) group. A passing conversation with a church member's daughter led to thoughts about the church's lack of comfort with Mary's physical pregnancy. She was married to a pastor, and often made seasonally-inspired stoles for him to wear. She always got great feedback about the stoles until Advent came along. She portrayed Mary with quite a bump, and got not one comment about the stole.
And--full confession--currently in my own church, we do absolutely none of this. I am part of a mom's group and have known several pregnant women, but my only contribution to encouraging any sort of spiritual reflection has been in personal notes and gifts. So I know from experience that this can be hard to start if it's not already part of the culture. My hope is to talk to the other women in the mom's group about what we could incorporate into our celebrations for the pregnancies and babies.
So, I'd love to have you join the conversation!

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It is only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith. … I mean living unreservedly in life's duties, problems, successes and failures, experiences and perplexities. In so doing we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God.